Israeli steals Auschwitz items for student art project


An Israeli student whose grandparents survived the Holocaust has admitted stealing items from the Auschwitz death camp for her art project.
Rotem Bides visited the former Nazi German camp in Poland several times and removed items, including a sign forbidding people from taking anything.
She told an Israeli newspaper she had acted out of concern that the Holocaust would over time "turn into a myth".
The Auschwitz-Birkenau museum has demanded the objects' return.
More than a million people, mostly Jews, were killed at Auschwitz during World War Two.
The objects from Auschwitz, which also include shards of glass, small bowls, a metal screw and soil, formed part of the 27-year-old's final project in Jerusalem, Yedioth Ahronoth newspaper reported.
Ms Bides told the newspaper she felt it was "something I had to do".
"Millions of people were murdered based on the moral laws of a certain country, under a certain regime," she told the newspaper.
"And if these are the laws, I can go there and act according to my own laws.
"I'm not saying I'm allowed to do it because my grandfather was in Auschwitz. I'm simply asking the questions. I'm concerned that after all the survivors are gone, the Holocaust will turn into a myth, something that cannot be perceived."
Ms Vides's supervisor at Beit Berl College, the Israeli artist Michal Na'aman, told the newspaper she "did not see anything wrong with it".
"The way I see it, she succeeds in creating a unique encounter between art and an event that has passed and has been wrapped in a lot of words, symbols and representations," Ms Na'aman said.
The Auschwitz-Birkenau museum has described the objects' removal as "painful and outrageous" and demanded that the Israeli authorities ensure their return.
"It's hard to imagine theft being justified in any way, even through art, which can be seen as an attempt to gain publicity," it said in a statement.
Items have been stolen from Auschwitz in the past. In 2011 an Israeli local government official picked up several items that were lying on the ground next to a display cabinet but they were discovered by officials at Krakow airport.
Moti Posloshani, the son of Holocaust survivors, later told Yedioth Ahronoth that he had wanted to "safeguard" the objects and perhaps hand them to Yad Vashem, the Holocaust memorial museum in Jerusalem.
And in 2009 the infamous "Arbeit macht frei" ("Work makes you free" in German) sign over the entrance to Auschwitz was stolen by thieves but recovered shortly afterwards.

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Uruguay pharmacies start selling recreational marijuana

Uruguay has become the first country in the world to legally sell marijuana for recreational use.
Sixteen pharmacies started dispensing marijuana on Wednesday,
Almost 5,000 people have signed up to a national registry to be able to buy marijuana legally. They will be able to buy up to 10g (0.35oz) a week and no more than 40g a month.
The move comes four years after a law was passed which fully legalised the cannabis trade.
Supporters of the law argue that it will help stop the illegal trade in marijuana and put drug dealers out of business.
Customers will be able to choose from two varieties of marijuana dubbed Alpha 1 and Beta 1.
Both contain 2% Tetrahidrocannabinol (THC), the psychoactive component of marijuana.
The price for five grams has been set at 187 Uruguayan pesos ($6.50; £5.00).
The marijuana sold at the pharmacies comes from state-supervised fields.
The law also allows users to grow their own at home or join co-operative clubs that farm it.
Officials said about 70% of people who had registered to buy marijuana from pharmacies where men, most of them aged between 30 and 44.
In order to avoid "marijuana tourism", only Uruguayan citizens and permanent residents are allowed to register.


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Saudi-led bloc modifies demands to end Qatar crisis


The four Arab nations leading a boycott of Qatar are no longer insisting it comply with a list of 13 specific demands they tabled last month.
Diplomats from Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain and Egypt told reporters at the UN they now wanted it to accept six broad principles.
These include commitments to combat terrorism and extremism and to end acts of provocation and incitement.
There was no immediate comment from Qatar, which denies aiding terrorists.
It has refused to agree to any measures that threaten its sovereignty or violate international law, and denounced the "siege" imposed by its neighbours.
The restrictions put in place six weeks ago have forced the gas-rich emirate to import food by sea and air to meet the basic needs of its population of 2.7 million.
At a briefing for a group of UN correspondents in New York on Tuesday, diplomats from the four countries said they wanted to resolve the crisis amicably.
Saudi permanent representative Abdullah al-Mouallimi said their foreign ministers had agreed the six principles at a meeting in Cairo on 5 July and that they "should be easy for the Qataris to accept".
They were combating terrorism and extremism, denying financing and safe havens to terrorist groups, stopping incitement to hatred and violence, and refraining from interfering in the internal affairs of other countries, according to the New York Times.
Mr Mouallimi stressed that there would be "no compromise" on the principles, but added that both sides would be able to discuss how to implement them.
The list of 13 demands handed to Qatar on 22 June included shutting down the Al Jazeera news network, closing a Turkish military base, cutting ties with the Muslim Brotherhood and downgrading relations with Iran.
Mr Mouallimi said closing Al Jazeera might not be necessary but stopping incitement to violence and hate speech was essential.
US President Donald Trump was quick to claim credit for the pressure being placed on Qatar, saying it might mark the "beginning of the end to the horror of terrorism".
But his Secretary of State, Rex Tillerson, questioned the list of demands, acknowledging that some elements would "be very difficult for Qatar to meet".
Mr Tillerson conducted several days of shuttle diplomacy in the region last week and signed a memorandum of understanding with Qatar on countering terrorism financing that Ms Hashimi called "an excellent step".


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Trump and Putin had another, undisclosed conversation at G20

US President Donald Trump and Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin had another, previously undisclosed conversation at this month's G20, the White House has confirmed.
They spoke towards the end of a formal dinner but the White House has not revealed what was discussed.
President Trump has condemned media revelations of the talks as "sick".
The two leaders' relationship is under scrutiny amid allegations of Russian interference in the US election.
US intelligence agencies believe Moscow tried to tip the election in Mr Trump's favour, something denied by Russia. Mr Trump has rejected allegations of any collusion.
The extra conversation happened during a private meal of heads of state at the G20 summit in Hamburg earlier in the month.
Mr Trump left his seat and headed to Mr Putin, who had been sitting next to Mr Trump's wife, Melania, US media said. The US president was alone with Mr Putin, apart from the attendance of the Russian president's official interpreter.
Mr Trump had been seated next to Japanese PM Shinzo Abe's wife, so the US interpreter at the dinner spoke Japanese, not Russian. No media were in attendance.

Analysis: Uncomfortable questions raised

Jonathan Marcus, BBC News defence and diplomatic correspondent
Given the poor state of relations between Washington and Moscow and the controversy surrounding Russia's efforts to interfere with the US presidential campaign, each and every encounter between Mr Putin and Mr Trump is bound to be carefully scrutinised.
Thus the apparently impromptu discussion between the two men at the G20 dinner inevitably raises many questions. What was President Trump seeking to do in approaching the Russian president? Were matters of substance discussed? If so, why was no formal note taken? And why did the US president have to rely upon a Russian official for translation?
This is all highly unusual, especially at a time when relations between the two countries are laden with so many problems.
Mr Trump also appeared unaware of another dimension - the message that his tete-a-tete would send to other leaders in the room, who must have watched the US president's gambit with some unease.
The length of the talks has been disputed.
Ian Bremmer, president of the US-based Eurasia Group, who first reported them in a newsletter to clients, said: "Donald Trump got up from the table and sat down with Putin for about an hour. It was very animated and very friendly."
No-one else was nearby, so the topics of discussion were not known, he said.
Mr Bremmer had not been at the dinner but said details were given to him by unnamed attendees who, he said, were "flummoxed, confused and startled" by the turn of events.
Mr Bremmer told Bloomberg he had never before seen "two major countries with a constellation of national interests that are as dissident while the two leaders seem to be doing everything possible to make nice-nice and be close to each other".
In a statement, a senior White House official said there was no "second meeting", just a brief conversation after dinner.
At the earlier, formal meeting, their first face-to-face encounter, Mr Trump said he had repeatedly pressed Mr Putin about the allegations of interference in the US vote.
"I said, 'Did you do it?' He said, 'No, I did not, absolutely not.' I then asked him a second time, in a totally different way. He said, 'Absolutely not.'"
There are congressional investigations, and one by a special counsel, into the allegations of Russian interference in the US election and possible collusion with the Trump team.
On Tuesday, the Senate intelligence committee said it wanted to interview Mr Trump's son, Donald Jr, and other members of the Trump team, over a meeting they had with a Russian lawyer in June last year.
Mr Trump Jr said he had attended the meeting with Natalia Veselnitskaya as he was promised damaging material on Hillary Clinton, but it did not materialise.
On Wednesday, Ms Veselnitskaya told Russia's RT television channel she would be willing to testify before the Senate on the matter
Meanwhile, the White House said Mr Trump would nominate former Utah governor Jon Huntsman as ambassador to Russia, a key post for a president who promised to improve relations with Moscow.
Mr Huntsman, who served as ambassador to China and Singapore, needs to have his name confirmed by the Senate.
The suspicions over Russian interference are likely to play a significant factor in his confirmation process, correspondents say


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Second Australian senator quits over dual citizenship

An Australian senator who made history by breastfeeding in parliament has resigned after learning she holds dual citizenship.
Larissa Waters, from the minor Greens party, was born in Canada.
Under Australia's constitution, a person cannot run for federal office if they hold dual or plural citizenship.
On Friday, another Greens senator, Scott Ludlam, also resigned for having dual citizenship. Both politicians were deputy leaders of the party.
In May, Ms Waters gained international attention by becoming the first politician to breastfeed in Australia's federal parliament.

'I was unaware'

Ms Waters said she only discovered her citizenship status following the case of Mr Ludlam, who had recently learned he was a New Zealand national.
Holding back tears at a press conference on Tuesday, Ms Waters described her error as an "honest mistake".
"I was devastated to learn that because of 70-year-old Canadian laws I had been a dual citizen from birth, and that Canadian law changed a week after I was born and required me to have actively renounced Canadian citizenship," she said.
The senator, 40, was 11 months old when she left Canada with her Australian parents.
"All of this happened before I could even say my first word," she said.
However, Ms Waters, who was first elected in 2011, said she took "full responsibility".
It is not yet clear whether she and Mr Ludlam will have to repay their Senate salaries and allowances.
"Certainly it is something that may occur and I will face it if it comes," Ms Waters said.
Greens leader Richard Di Natale said he was "gutted" by the resignation of Ms Waters, who had made an "enormous contribution" to Australia.
The party leader said he was taking immediate action to ensure the mistake would not be repeated.
"It has been a terrible month, there is no other way of sugar-coating it," he said.
According to Australia's constitution, politicians must relinquish foreign citizenships before standing for office.


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North Korean defector 'appears in propaganda video'


South Korean intelligence officials are investigating whether a prominent defector from the North has been kidnapped back to Pyongyang.
The woman, known as Lim Ji-hyun, fled to South Korea in 2014, where she became a popular TV personality.
However, a woman resembling her appeared in a propaganda video in the North's capital on Sunday - prompting speculation she may have been abducted.
In the video, she says she was lured away and forced to slander the North.
She says that she voluntarily returned across the border.
Ms Lim had been a popular face on South Korean television, appearing on both talk shows and reality TV programmes.
The authorities have not yet confirmed if the woman in the propaganda video is Ms Lim. However, they believe Ms Lim is back in North Korea.
The propaganda video was released on Youtube by the North Korean Uriminzokkiri website on Sunday.
In the video, the woman introduces herself by another name, Jeon Hye-Sung.
She is shown in conversation with an interviewer and Kim Man-bok, another former defector who also returned to the North.
She says she was lured to the South by the "fantasy" that she could "eat well and make lots of money" and claims that she was forced into slandering her own country.
She describes how in the South everything was judged by money, how she was struggling to make ends meet and was asked to discredit the North on several TV shows.
She said she was now living back with her parents again after returning to the North last month.
"I felt really lonely in South Korea and I missed my parents," she said in the video.
JoongAng Ilbo newspaper reports that the defector had thanked her fans as recently as April for a birthday party, calling it "possibly the happiest birthday of my life".
Her fan club announced on Sunday it would shut.
Intelligence officials are investigating how Ms Lim might have re-entered North Korea.
Some North Korean defectors have speculated that she may have been abducted on the China-North Korean border while attempting to smuggle out family members, the Korea Times reports.
The BBC's Karen Allen in Seoul says that fake propaganda videos do circulate in North Korea but the authorities in Seoul have confirmed they are taking this seriously and are investigating her case.
Over the past decade, tens of thousands of North Koreans have defected from the authoritarian state into South Korea.
The unification ministry in Seoul told the BBC that since 2012 only 25 returned.
Some North Korean defectors have described difficulties in adapting to life in the South - many miss their families in the North, or struggle to find suitable jobs.


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Spain football chief Angel Maria Villar Llona arrested

The president of the Spanish Football Federation and his son have been held as part of a corruption investigation, police in Spain say.
Angel María Villar Llona was arrested on suspicion of embezzling funds, El Pais and Efe news agency reported.
Mr Villar, a former Spain international footballer, has been president of the association since 1988.
His son Gorka was among a number of other people also arrested during a number of raids early on Tuesday.
Spain's High Court told Reuters that one of its investigating magistrates and anti-corruption prosecutors were leading the probe.
Spanish media report that the allegations centre on the falsification of documents and skimming profits from international football matches.
There has been no comment yet from Mr Villar, 67, or his lawyers.

'You really have balls'

In Villar's time as president of the federation, Spain's men's football team has won two European championships as well as the 2010 World Cup, becoming one of football's dominant forces.
He has also served on the council of football's world governing body Fifa for the past 29 years, but was reprimanded by Fifa for failing to comply with its internal inquiry into the 2018/22 World Cup bidding process.
Michael Garcia, who conducted the investigation, wrote that Mr Villar told him: "Well, you really have balls" when the American lawyer refused to reveal who had made allegations against Mr Villar. He also demanded Mr Garcia drop the case "for your own good".
Richard Conway, the BBC's sports news correspondent, said the Spaniard's arrest is significant and a clear signal that the many issues surrounding officials who presided over world football in recent decades continue.
Mr Villar was acting president of Uefa, Europe's footballing body, while its chief Michel Platini was under investigation. He lost out on the presidency in an election last year.
Uefa and Fifa said they were aware of the reports.
Gorka Villar served as the director-general of the South American football confederation Conmebol before standing down last year.
Before standing down, he had been accused of extortion by a number of Uruguyan football clubs.


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Apple to scan iPhones for child sex abuse images

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